Auburn Gets Zoned Out by Alabama 56-52
2006-01-13
Posted by: badanov
We caught the second half of Alabama at Auburn game on Jefferson Pilot network two days ago, and even though both these hoops teams are swishing about in the SEC toilet, it was still a good game.
Both teams played a 2-3 defense, two forward/centers out near the stripe and three guards at or near the goal. This type of zone is good when your opponent isn't very quick, or when your guards have problem getting set against drives. This defense keeps any athletes from driving and getting goals when the defense compresses in on offensive drives. Plus, it helps in rebounds to play zone.
And both teams played zone defense against one another.
The way I understand it, when you opponent sets up a zone, any outside shooters are free to roam and take shots from three point range. The pressure is off. Of course, it is far tougher to shoot from three point range, but without any coverage of outside shooters using a zone, you can get behind the score is a big hurry.
That's why Duke's J.J. Reddick is so good against zone defenses. This man is a holy terror on the outside. Teams can stuff Reddick by playing man to man, but often that doesn't help either, since he is so quick. The one thing, though, you don't have to worry about in a zone defense against a good outside shooter is the guy driving to the paint or even shooting from the post.
Reddick doesn't do that very well. Zone defenses are supposed to cover that.
Alabama outplayed the zone against Auburn. The Tide out-rebounded Auburn 36-25. Their defense also kept Auburn to just 38 percent from the field and 26 from three point range.
Granted Alabama didn't do very well either, shooting 37 from the field, but they out-shot Auburn at 41 percent from three point range.
It was easy to see how because starting around 10:00 to go in the second half, Auburn shifted their defense to a 1-3-1 half court zone. We have not seem this type of zone so far this year.
What that zone was supposed to do was to make it a good deal tougher for three point shooters, such as Alabama guard Alonzo Gee who shot 3-4 from three point range. If a guard gets passed the first element of the defense, it is supposed to be much tougher to even get the ball to three point range without the risk of turnovers. It also seems to give a defense time to set, for when drives to the basket do come.
In three point defense Auburn is in the top three in the SEC, as well as in three point offense, but they are dead last in scoring margin and scoring offense.
Auburn could not get this 1-3-1 defense to work, because at the 2:17 in the second half, 'Bama went ahead of Auburn and never looked back. The rest of the game was close, but you got the idea that 'Bama wasn't going to let Auburn beat them.
Alabama plays at 10-5 Kentucky next Saturday.
The Kentucky is suffering so far this season, dropping game by huge margins against ranked opponent, Indiana, which went down to Michigan State last Wednesday, and against Kansas. 'Bama then hosts 11-4 Arkansas, a team that has struggled so far this year losing games to LSU and Mississippi State, and to ranked opponents Uconn and Maryland.
Auburn travels to number two in the nation Florida this Saturday, then hosts Arkansas a week later.
If you have something to add, Fire Away!
Number of Comments so far: 0
Click here
for a list of stories in the College Sports category